Questions for Arguing about Literature
Questions for Arguing about Literature
Formalist Questions
 How do various elements of the work – plot, character, point of view, setting,
tone, diction, images, symbol, and so on – reinforce its meanings?
 How are the elements related to the whole?
 What is the work’s major organizing principle? How is its structure unified?
 What issues does the work raise? How does the work’s structure reveal or
resolve those issues?
Formalist Questions
 How do various elements of the work – plot, character, point of view, setting,
tone, diction, images, symbol, and so on – reinforce its meanings?
 How are the elements related to the whole?
 What is the work’s major organizing principle? How is its structure unified?
 What issues does the work raise? How does the work’s structure reveal or
resolve those issues?
Biographical Questions
 Are facts about the writer’s life relevant to your understanding to the work?
 Are the characters and incidents in the work versions of the writer’s own
experiences? Are they treated factually or imaginatively?
 How do you think the writers values are reflected in the work?
Biographical Questions
 Are facts about the writer’s life relevant to your understanding to the work?
 Are the characters and incidents in the work versions of the writer’s own
experiences? Are they treated factually or imaginatively?
 How do you think the writers values are reflected in the work?
Psychological Questions
 How does the work reflect the author’s personal psychology?
 What do the characters’ emotions and behavior reveal about their
psychological states? What types of personalities are they?
 Are psychological matters such as repression, dreams, and desire presented
unconsciously or consciously by the author?
Psychological Questions
 How does the work reflect the author’s personal psychology?
 What do the characters’ emotions and behavior reveal about their
psychological states? What types of personalities are they?
 Are psychological matters such as repression, dreams, and desire presented
unconsciously or consciously by the author?
Historical Questions
 How does the work reflect the period in which it is written?
 What literary or historical influences helped to shape the form and content of
the work?
 How important is the historical context to interpreting the work?
Historical Questions
 How does the work reflect the period in which it is written?
 What literary or historical influences helped to shape the form and content of
the work?
 How important is the historical context to interpreting the work?
Marxist Questions
 How are class differences presented in the work? Are the characters aware or
unaware of the economic and social forces that affect their lives?
 How do economic conditions determine the characters’ lives?
 What ideological values are explicit or implicit?
 Does the work challenge or affirm the social order it describes?
Marxist Questions
 How are class differences presented in the work? Are the characters aware or
unaware of the economic and social forces that affect their lives?
 How do economic conditions determine the characters’ lives?
 What ideological values are explicit or implicit?
 Does the work challenge or affirm the social order it describes?
New Historicist Questions
 What kinds of documents outside the work seem especially relevant for
shedding light on the work?
 How are social values contemporary to the work reflected or refuted in the
work?
 How does your own historical moment affect your reading of the work and its
historical reconstruction?
New Historicist Questions
 What kinds of documents outside the work seem especially relevant for
shedding light on the work?
 How are social values contemporary to the work reflected or refuted in the
work?
 How does your own historical moment affect your reading of the work and its
historical reconstruction?
Cultural Studies Questions
 What does the work reveal about the cultural behavior contemporary to it?
 How does popular culture contemporary to the work reflect or challenge the
values implicit or explicit in the work?
 What kinds of cultural documents contemporary to the work add to your
reading of it?
Cultural Studies Questions
 What does the work reveal about the cultural behavior contemporary to it?
 How does popular culture contemporary to the work reflect or challenge the
values implicit or explicit in the work?
 What kinds of cultural documents contemporary to the work add to your
reading of it?

How do your own cultural assumptions affect your reading of the work and the
culture contemporary to it?

How do your own cultural assumptions affect your reading of the work and the
culture contemporary to it?
Gender Studies Questions
 How are the lives of men and women portrayed in the work? Do the men and
women in the work accept or reject these roles?
 Is the form and content of the work influenced by the author’s gender?
 What attitudes are explicit or implicit concerning heterosexual, homosexual, or
lesbian relationships? Are these relationships sources of conflict? Do they
provide resolutions to conflicts?
 Does the work challenge or affirm traditional ideas about men and women and
same-sex relationships?
Gender Studies Questions
 How are the lives of men and women portrayed in the work? Do the men and
women in the work accept or reject these roles?
 Is the form and content of the work influenced by the author’s gender?
 What attitudes are explicit or implicit concerning heterosexual, homosexual, or
lesbian relationships? Are these relationships sources of conflict? Do they
provide resolutions to conflicts?
 Does the work challenge or affirm traditional ideas about men and women and
same-sex relationships?
Mythological Questions
 How does the story resemble other stories in plot, character, setting, or use of
symbols?
 Are archetypes presented, such as quests, initiations, scapegoats, or
withdrawals and returns?
 Does the protagonist undergo any kind of transformation such as movement
from innocence to experience that seems archetypal?
 Do any specific allusions to myths shed any light on the text?
Mythological Questions
 How does the story resemble other stories in plot, character, setting, or use of
symbols?
 Are archetypes presented, such as quests, initiations, scapegoats, or
withdrawals and returns?
 Does the protagonist undergo any kind of transformation such as movement
from innocence to experience that seems archetypal?
 Do any specific allusions to myths shed any light on the text?
Reader-Response Questions
 How do you respond to the work?
 How do your own experiences and expectations affect your reading and
interpretation?
 What is the work’s original or intended audience? To what extent are you
similar to or different from that audience?
 Do you respond in the same way to the work after more than one reading?
Reader-Response Questions
 How do you respond to the work?
 How do your own experiences and expectations affect your reading and
interpretation?
 What is the work’s original or intended audience? To what extent are you
similar to or different from that audience?
 Do you respond in the same way to the work after more than one reading?
Deconstructionist Questions
 How are contradictory and opposing meanings expressed in the work?
 How does the meaning break down or deconstruct itself in the language of the
text?
 Would you say that ultimate definitive meanings are impossible to determine
and establish in the text? Why? How does that affect your interpretation?
 How are implicit ideological values revealed in the work?
Deconstructionist Questions
 How are contradictory and opposing meanings expressed in the work?
 How does the meaning break down or deconstruct itself in the language of the
text?
 Would you say that ultimate definitive meanings are impossible to determine
and establish in the text? Why? How does that affect your interpretation?
 How are implicit ideological values revealed in the work?
These questions will not apply to all texts, nor are they mutually exclusive. They can be
combined to explore a text from several critical perspectives simultaneously. A feminist
approach to “The Story of an Hour” could also use Marxist concerns about class to make
observations about the oppression of women’s lives in the historical context of the
nineteenth century. These questions should allow you to discover significant issues from
which you can develop an argumentative analysis that is organized around clearly
defined terms and relevant evidence.
These questions will not apply to all texts, nor are they mutually exclusive. They can be
combined to explore a text from several critical perspectives simultaneously. A feminist
approach to “The Story of an Hour” could also use Marxist concerns about class to make
observations about the oppression of women’s lives in the historical context of the
nineteenth century. These questions should allow you to discover significant issues from
which you can develop an argumentative analysis that is organized around clearly
defined terms and relevant evidence.
Source: Meyer, Michael. The Bedford Introduction to Literature. Boston, Bedford/St.
Martin’s, 2008. Print.
Source: Meyer, Michael. The Bedford Introduction to Literature. Boston, Bedford/St.
Martin’s, 2008. Print.